


soft moments warm the heart

by falling in love (princess_zel)



Series: wooden floors, little feet [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Both Ships Are Balanced, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Hakoda (Avatar) is a Good Grandpa, Holidays, Hurt/Comfort, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Grandpa, Katara and Zuko (Avatar) are Parents, Married Sokkla, Married Zutara, Sokkla, Steambaby, Uncle Sokka, Winter Solstice, ZKDD Day 25, ZKDD Day 27, Zutara, Zutara Drabble December 2020, aunt azula, soft family moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28388955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princess_zel/pseuds/falling%20in%20love
Summary: Azula yearns for something more. Katara already has it. Sokka loves his wife, Azula. Zuko loves his wife, Katara, and their children. They all love their family.
Relationships: Azula/Sokka (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: wooden floors, little feet [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079174
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39
Collections: ZK Drabble December 2020, zutara (ATLA)





	soft moments warm the heart

**Author's Note:**

> so hi! it's been like a week since i've lasted posted something here which feels weird. this was supposed to be out on the 25th, but... uhhh... that didn't happen lol.
> 
> i hope you all had a Merry Christmas n Happy Holidays if you celebrate! <33 this is my gift to y'all in honor of the holidays
> 
> this fic has four separate scenes (each one from a different POV - Azula's, Katara's, Sokka's, Zuko's), and it's set in the same universe as my Sokkla oneshot called "wine stained teeth, bloodshot eyes" (this is the prequel to that fic). there will be a third Zutara/Sokkla installment to this series later on.

“...Sokka,” Azula begins flatly, insistently drumming her fingers on the handle bar of their shopping cart. “How did we end up here?” Her golden eyes are narrowed in annoyance, and her dark brows are knit together tightly. She’s glaring at the shelf of packaged noodles as though she’d like to see it go up in flames.

Tugging a bit at the loose wolftail at the back of his head, Sokka shrugs and continues to scan his long paper, his pen scrawls revealing both their grocery list and their schedule. “I honestly don’t even… Oh, Zuli, have you decided which brand of noodles we’re going to get?”

Head snapping to look at him, Azula suddenly clenches the shopping cart handle. “This is all our idiotic siblings’ faults!” she crosses her arms over her chest as Sokka finally looks over at her, surprised at her outburst. “I can’t believe that my dum-dum of a brother just _had_ to go and knock up your little sister a _second time_ so now we’re in charge of dinner this year.”

“Well, would _you_ rather have been knocked up instead?” Sokka questions, and she glares at the teasing glint in his blue eyes. “No? Then don’t be so upset – Ever since Kya was born, you know Dad and Iroh have been itching for a second grandchild.” He goes back to reading down his list, eyes crossing slightly in concentration.

She huffs, snagging a few boxes of prepackaged noodles from the shelf viciously. “Perhaps you’re right,” she muses, voice catching at the back of her throat. “Better her than me.”

Rolling his eyes lightly, Sokka repockets his list before maneuvering in front of her, taking control of the cart. “Whatever you say, Zuli. You know as well as I do that Kya’s got a firm grip on your heartstrings.”

“Yeah, right,” she glares back at him. “But she’s got _you_ wrapped around her little finger.”

Lifting his shoulders up in another brief shrug, Sokka leads them onward, cutting through parked carts and bustling aisles, “At least I don’t deny it, unlike _someone_ I know.” He brings the cart to a halt as she begins to examine the produce, selecting only the best vegetables with shiny, unbruised skin. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she shoots back cooly, a challenge dancing in her golden eyes.

“Sure, you don’t,” Sokka finally relents, returning to his list. “Hey, do you think we should pick up some gochujang while we’re here? I don’t know if we have any in the fridge back home.” 

And so their shopping journey continues, and Azula’s able to hastily bury down the aching longing in her chest that flares every time she catches sight of another family getting their holiday shopping done. In her mind, she distances herself from the stash of pregnancy tests that remain hidden in a repurposed tampon box, stuffed in one of her designated bathroom drawers. It’s easier to ignore it when she’s alone, she supposes, as she and Sokka make their purchase. Lugging paper bags out to the car, though, she can’t help the way that her eyes linger on the young expecting couple Sokka passes their newly empty cart off to.

If Sokka spots any of the vulnerable yearning that’s present in her eyes, he doesn’t say anything of it. Instead, he pushes the trunk shut, sliding into the passenger’s seat with ease as she turns the car engine on.

When his hand works its way into hers, she doesn’t say a thing. She just pulls out of the grocery store parking lot, their glossy car rolling its way down the highway and back to their little home.

* * *

“Zuko?” Katara calls, one hand resting on the curve of her stomach and another rifling through a pile of unfolded laundry. “Do you know where Kya’s boots are? I can’t find them anywhere, and we have to be at Sokka and Azula’s place in an hour.” Threading her fingers through her curly updo, she’s close to tearing her hair out strand by strand from pure stress.

Poking his head into the bedroom, Zuko responds, “Don’t worry; I’ve got her dressed and waiting at the door.” Fully catching sight of her, his expression softens, and he’s at her side in an instant. “Are you alright, love?”

Locking eyes with her husband, she shakes her head. “I’ve finished up most of the gift wrapping, but Kya knocked something over in the kitchen, and I haven’t had the time to sweep it up, and the laundry isn’t folded so when we get back home we won’t be able to go straight to bed and –”

He cuts her off, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close against his body. “Don’t worry, Katara,” he repeats. “Why don’t you go pull your coat on while I get the broom and sweep up?” He’s warm and solid beneath her cold fingers, and she can feel his heart beating steadily from under his sweater, thudding loudly in his chest.

“Kya’s all alone in the front,” she groans, not quite trusting her two year old toddler’s ability to stay out of mischief.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead and rubbing soothing circles into her shoulder blades, Zuko nods, “You go join her. I’ll handle the folding and sweeping before we go.”

Her brow creases, and she cups his cheek, dragging her soft thumb along the mottled skin of his scar. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a mess lately. The hormones and I just –”

“Shh,” he says gently. “It’s okay.” His lips twist upward into an easy grin. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do, I promise – I’m just happy to be here with you.” He lets her curl against him once more, resting a hand on her womb lightly. “All three of you. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she tells him, moving into the foyer where Kya is waiting on them. Then, she tugs on her winter maternity coat, a purchase she made nearly three years ago while pregnant with Kya.

When Zuko reemerges from the hallway, presents stacked in his arms, Kya beams up at him and squeals, already clapping her gloved hands in excitement. “Are both of my ladies all ready to head out?” he asks, setting the parcels down so that he can pull on his coat and tousle Kya’s unruly curls.

“Yes,” Katara smiles at him, wrapping his scarf around his neck and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“Azula?” Sokka smells smoke. “Is… Is something burning?” Stepping into the kitchen, he immediately wishes he could make a hasty escape. Lifting an arm up to his face, he coughs into it as he joins his wife at the stove.

Her hands on her hips and her face twisted into a scowl, she spits back, “What do _you_ think?” Bursting into a coughing fit, she waves a hand over the smoky pot, turning on the vent fan as the smoke alarm begins to shriek above them. “This is a disaster.”

He reaches for the broom, shifting it slightly in his grip so that he can turn the alarm off with the handle. “Maybe things would be going differently if you’d actually let me help out.” He gives her a pointed look.

“You cook less than me.” She pulls herself into an uncharacteristic pout.

Flicking the burner off, Sokka removes the pot lid, peering at the somehow scorched soup. “At least the things I do cook don’t burn,” he replies smoothly. 

His wife is not convinced in the least bit. “You pull jerky out of a bag, Sokka.” She crosses the kitchen to check the rice cooker and place a stack of plates on the counter. “Go set the table and listen for the doorbell. I don’t have time for you to be waltzing around my kitchen when the family is going to be arriving soon.”

Trapping her against the counter, Sokka’s grin turns wolfish as he hides his face in the crook of her neck. “At least it’s good jerky – Good jerky is never a missed steak… Get it? Missed? Steak? Mistake?” He lifts his head up to look at her and assess her reaction. He’d thought it was a pretty damn good joke.

She raises a singular brow. “Yes,” she says dryly. “I get it. Now, what’ll it take for you to set the table before our _siblings_ arrive? Agni, did you wrap the gifts?”

“Of course I did, Zuli,” he replies, pressing a kiss to her temple. “With the exception of dinner, we’re all set for keeping the schedule and being ready for the family.” 

Reluctantly, Azula peels away from him, returning to her place by the stove. “We’re a disgrace,” she mutters, stirring the pitiful stew with a wooden spoon. “Sokka. Table. Now, please. Your sister’s going to judge me for not having the place looking spotless, and your father’s going to gag the minute he has a spoonful of these prunes.” She looks genuinely upset with the way their dinner’s turning out, and that causes Sokka’s heart to twist.

“Even if dinner doesn’t go as planned, we’ll still be together as a family,” he reassures her. “And that’s all that really matters anyways. Besides, we’re already married,” he adds with a teasing grin. “No serious consequence can come from your inability to make stewed sea prunes now.” When she grabs a drenched dish rag and holds it poised menacingly in the air, he scrams, smile only widening as he carries the stack of plates out to the dining room.

That’s his Zuli.

As he sets the table, he listens carefully for the door as instructed by his wife. He makes sure to set out a plastic cup and a pair of smaller chopsticks with a rubber grip for Kya. Knowing just how fond Azula is of them, he lights a few ambience candles throughout the room, far from a certain curious toddler’s reach. Their pile of wrapped presents is in the living room, and the apartment feels alive with warmth.

When the doorbell finally rings and Sokka moves to open it, Azula’s just emerging from their bedroom, stringing silver hoops through her ears. They stand together at the doorway, catching sight of Hakoda and Iroh.

“My niece and her delightful husband,” Iroh bows his gray head, a bulky bag of presents at his side. “It is a pleasure to see you both, indeed.”

While Azula ushers her uncle into their apartment stiffly, Sokka moves to embrace his father more fully, “Hey, Dad. Happy Solstice.”

“Happy Solstice, Sokka,” Hakoda replies easily, his embrace strong and his lined face bright. “Have Zuko and Katara arrived yet?”

Iroh nods his head in agreement, kicking his shoes off by the closed door, “Yes, yes, are they inside?”

Sokka’s quick to rib back, “You’re both only interested in seeing _Kya,_ though, aren’t you?”

“We see right through you, old man,” Azula adds, although her eyes lack their normal mirthful glint when she does. “But, no, my idiot brother and his family have not arrived yet.” She sweeps past them and returns to the kitchen, leaving the three men standing in the corridor.

Hiding his concern, Sokka turns to Hakoda and Iroh, leading them into the living room. “How about a game of pai sho while you wait, though?” Tossing another worried glance back toward the kitchen, he unearths one of his old pai sho boards and sets it between the two men. “Have at it, you two.”

When he makes his way back to the kitchen, he finds Azula slumped against the counter. He doesn’t think twice before gathering her into his arms and holding her close to his heart as she cries.

* * *

“Katara, don’t worry about the gifts in the back,” Zuko says quickly, knowing that his pregnant wife is insistent and could potentially injure herself if she attempts to carry all the parcels in the back by herself. “I’ll get them after I get Kya.” He quickly unbuckles Kya’s seatbelt, helping her back into her winter coat and slipping mittens over her tiny fingers. “Are you cold, turtleduck?” he asks, tugging the hood over Kya’s curly head.

She giggles in response, looping her small arms around his neck. “Dadda!”

Slinging Kya’s diaper bag over his shoulder and scooping her up into his arms, Zuko shuts the car door and trudges through the light layer of snow that’s covering the sidewalk to where Katara is waiting for him. Before she has the chance to protest, he reassures her, “I’ll make a second trip back out to the car. Let me drop you all off at the apartment first, though, okay?”

A soft hand comes to rest on his shoulder, and Katara nods. “Even though she’s an arctic baby, it’s too cold for Kya to be out here for long.”

They shuffle through the snow from the car to Sokka and Azula’s apartment. Katara rings the bell, and they wait there on the porch, huddled together in the cold. When Kya shivers against him, he pulls her closer to his chest, shifting the way the bag hangs off his shoulder to accommodate for the change.

“Cold,” Kya complains with a pout. Her dark brows furrow adorably, and her button nose scrunches up in a motion so purely _Katara_ that Zuko’s heart stutters in his chest. He never tires of finding the similarities between his wife and his daughter, especially since there are so many of them.

“It is cold outside, Kya,” Katara nods, tucking a wispy curl behind their daughter’s ear. “Very good,” she praises, her blue eyes full of love.

The door swings outward, and Hakoda stands in the doorway, arms open wide. “Katara, Zuko,” he greets before turning his attention to the little one held against Zuko’s chest.

“And Kya!” Iroh cuts in, pushing past Hakoda and pulling Kya into his arms.

With an amused laugh, Katara enters her father’s embrace, tugging Zuko into it along behind her. “It’s good to see you both. We’ve missed you terribly.”

“We’ve missed your babysitting,” Zuko adds humorously, half in earnest. After Hakoda claps a steady hand against his back and Iroh squishes him and Kya in another hug, he slips back out the door so that he can retrieve the presents from the trunk of the car. When he returns, Sokka’s there to answer the door.

“Hey, Zuko.”

“Hey, Happy Solstice,” Zuko greets. He’s pulled into a firm hug. “Is everything alright, Sokka?”

With a dry chuckle, his brother in law replies, “We better hope the place down the block is open for takeout, or we’ll be eating burned sea prunes for dinner.”

“Your fault or Azula’s?” Zuko questions with an arched brow. He wouldn’t be surprised if it’d been either of them – Sokka isn’t trusted to be left alone in the kitchen, and although a perfectionist by nature, Azula isn’t particularly gifted in the culinary arts either.

“Azula’s,” Sokka replies, accepting Zuko’s coat as he kicks his boots off at the door. “We mostly order in when it’s just the two of us so I think dinner tonight may have been a little too much for us to handle.”

Zuko laughs before dropping the presents off in the living room where Hakoda and Iroh are seated on the carpet, fawning over little Kya. “I’m sorry that Katara and I weren’t able to assist more, but we’ve sorta had our hands tied.”

A lopsided grin spreads across Sokka’s face, “I can see that. She’s getting pretty mischievous.” He nods at Kya who’s knocked over a stack of her blocks.

“You’re tellin’ me,” Zuko laughs, sinking down onto one of the sleek leather couches across from Sokka.

Katara appears in the doorway, an arm wrapped around Azula. “We’ve called in for some takeout if that’s alright with everyone.” She leads his sister, whose shoulders are shaking, to a loveseat close by. She settles into the cushions, lacing her fingers over the curve of her stomach. When he shoots her a worried glance, she just smiles at him reassuringly.

When Sokka and Azula join Kya on the carpet, Sokka scooping Kya up into his arms and Azula presenting her with exquisitely wrapped gifts, Zuko slides into Azula’s newly vacated seat and cuddles beside his wife. “Is my sister okay?” he asks, whispering into his wife’s curly hair.

Tucking her feet beneath her, she leans her head against his chest. “Don’t worry,” she whispers back. “She’s okay for now, and we can speak when we’re home. For now, let’s just enjoy being all together.”

As she nestles even further into his side, he keeps an arm around her tightly as they watch their daughter light up the room with her toothy grin. 

The crease on Azula’s brow disappears when she’s helping Kya tear open gifts, when she’s teasing Sokka for the goofy tone he takes on when talking to their niece, when she’s blushing lightly under Hakoda’s praise for the way she’s decorated the living room. The cloudy darkness in her eyes fades as she allows Sokka to pull her into a loose embrace of his own. 

Hakoda stacks block towers for Kya to knock over while Iroh pores over Katara’s latest sonogram. Both doting grandpas shower Kya with love and thoughtful gifts, and it warms Zuko’s heart.

Azula’s ambience candles add to the soft glow of the night, and even the takeout they order from the place down the street does little to dull their collective happiness at being together.

It’s a wonderful evening, and Zuko wouldn’t change a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry if there are any random errors here; i didn't have the time to heavily proofread/edit it since this week has been so crazy.
> 
> this fic is Day 25 and 27 of ZKDD2020 ("Here with You" and "Don't Worry). i also just dropped a new ZK-inspired song in honor of ZKDD2020 if you'd like to check it out [here](https://youtu.be/moRgLBGRDOc) :)))
> 
> ahhh yeah sorry that was a lot of info, lol. there likely won't be any more updates from me before the beginning of 2021 so i wish y'all a Happy New Year! see you guys soon <333
> 
> Elsie


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